Abstract—This paper focuses on the micro-entrepreneurs of
Malaysian Malays who are involved in very small-scale business
activities. The study seeks to identify the impact of marketing
and financial competencies on their success and what needs to
be rectified. This quantitative study is conducted on 173 Malay
micro-entrepreneurs (MEs) and 58 Malay failed
micro-entrepreneurs (FMEs) involved in all range of businesses
throughout the state of Perak, Malaysia. The main aims are to
present the pathway of successful Malay entrepreneurs the
factors that could motivate them to start a micro business and
the skills required to run a business and keep growing. This
paper also identifies the gaps between the FMEs and existing
MEs and the problems faced among FMEs. The results reveal
that the MEs had strong motivations, better marketing
approaches and better financial competence as compared to
FMEs. Furthermore, the FMEs failed in business ventures
mainly due to lack of sales and marketing skills, poor
competitive abilities to keep up with rivals and poor financial
literacy.